


Primary Colors by Robot Squid Review

by mspafanfictionreviews



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:45:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mspafanfictionreviews/pseuds/mspafanfictionreviews
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A review and commentary on Primary Colors by Robot Squid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Primary Colors by Robot Squid Review

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RobotSquid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobotSquid/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Primary Colors](https://archiveofourown.org/works/279592) by [RobotSquid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobotSquid/pseuds/RobotSquid). 



> You can find the original work here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/279592/chapters/444253

Trigger warning: Because this is a discussion of Primary Colors I will be addressing the triggering content of the story include rape, sex assault, and sex.

This review is meant to be read by those who have already read Primary Colors. It jumps around a bit and does require a good working knowledge of the scenes it references. There is not much of an order to this as it was partially written through my most recent read-through and each segment was written, added to, and edited completely out of order. Please do not expect an entirely consistent flow. But you can read the first three paragraphs with no knowledge of the story. Beyond that though I'd suggest reading the story first.  
I want to start and say a few things regarding this review. First off, this is a joint review but largely reflects my own thoughts on the story. LR helped me sort through those thoughts and expand how I thought about situations before writing this. I originally wrote this review chapter by chapter over a year ago but I find that I now disagree with most of what I thought and felt it would be more efficient to rewrite my opinions from a fresh perspective (again, with LR's guidance). I'm drawing a lot from my original review but also expanding and changing my thoughts to reflect the most recent read through. Third, despite what negatives I have to say, everyone should read this story. If you're an ancestor fan, I'm amazed you haven't yet. If you aren't, maybe this will persuade you otherwise. What I say may sound harsh or overly critical but it was requested by the author that I do just that. Squid isn't the kind of author that needs mountains of praise to be self assured in her work (though she deserves all of it). She knows at the heart of it that she has an amazing talent but she also has the drive to better her work and hear honest opinions so she can improve her writing. I'm just one person and this is just one opinion.  
I've been reading fanfiction consistently since I was nine (at least that's my earliest memory because I got grounded for reading a lemon). Obviously, after all these years my taste has changed and I have very high standards and expectations of what I read. Fanfiction is often given the poor rep of being amateur, jr high, sappy buttsecks nonsense. While this is still true for a lot of fanction out there, there's just as many authors that write with REAL talent. Just because their work isn't of their own IP and isn't published somewhere "official" doesn't mean it's bad. I've read fanfiction authors that speak more eloquently and have a far better grasp on story telling than many published authors. A bulk of fanfiction may fetishize homosexuality and create an unrealistic view of homosexual relationships, but, again not all. Fanfiction deserves a better name, and with stories like Primary Colors and authors like RobotSquid, I think we can reclaim what fanfiction really stands for. It doesn't have to be perfect, all authors learn and grow the more they write. Supporting up-and-coming talent like RobotSquid is a perfect first step.   
Rarely can fanfiction be read with no knowledge of the IP it's based on but Primary Colors is unique in that while based in canon, it largely creates it's own way of telling the story to a potentially unfamiliar audience. Any unusual terminology used can be gathered through context clues. This story is wonderful on its own or supplementary to canon. I love when stories can do this as it makes them that much more engaging and really speaks to the care the author took in crafting this world--taking an IP and really spinning it their own way.

I want to start talking a bit about our characters. In particular, let's talk about Dualscar. If you know me you know Dualscar is the center of my existence. It's possible that I'm a little less than objective regarding his role in this story. That being said, Dualscar is probably the most well developed character in this story and it feels like a happy accident. This is both good and bad. Since we know next to nothing about Dualscar in canon aside from Mindfang's view of him (and mind you, being his kismesis I don't think we can entirely trust her journals). PC shows a very well developed and fleshed out Dualscar. The Dualscar I wish canon would have given us. He is very much a victim of his culture and time--a point brought up by Carmine throughout his sermons (not specifically about Dualscar but about Alternia itself). If you read more of Squid's work you'll get a better feel of what I'm talking about. Dualscar is born into a world that's given him a major advantage and even so he works his ass off to climb the social ladder even moreso than his blood has granted him socially and genetically and genuinely made him good at whatever it is he does. What Dualscar does and is isn't entirely touched on in the story but given his command over others of his blood caste it's reasonable to assume he didn't get there purely by luck--especially if no one seems to like him. He has talent and power but also suffers from alcoholism, no real sense of trust of those around him, no real friendship-esque bonds, and a (likely) genetically coded, unattainable flush for the Condesce. Somewhere toward the beginning-middle of the story Dualscar's fortune runs out and he's continuously one-upped by Darkleer. Being outshined and put further from the graces of the Condesce, Dualscar falls back into an even deeper pit of his character flaws.   
Consider a moment Dualscar's quadrants. His kismesis is a pirate and his wishful matesprit is a power-hungry tyrant. Neither of those are terribly stable bonds to have in our human way of thinking. As Dualscar says in the story, a matesprit is someone you want to better yourself to be good enough for (his desire to be worthy and useful to the Condesce's grand scheme) and a kismesis is someone you want to better yourself to surpass (Mindfang is an outlaw). He develops a very interesting bond with Psii throughout his ownership of him but Psii leaves. The only troll we could really argue is a good influence on Dualscar leaves. Dualscar is very used to getting what he wants and having his ambition produce fruitful results, now that that's being compromised by both Darkleer and Psiioniic his inner man-child wins out and he essentially throws a giant tantrum in true Ampora fashion. While we don't necessarily feel bad or pity him, he's still engaging and three dimensional. You can understand how he developed the way he did and why he makes the despicable choices he does. He carries a certain dignity but still suffers from being an Ampora). The unfortunate side of this is that Dualscar's character IS the most developed character in the story and he's not the main character.  
I appreciate authors that take their audience seriously enough to not spell out every little thing but the lack of development in our other characters feels inattentive, or as if the author couldn't devote the time to develop them in the interest of the timeline and keeping it in a manageable number of chapters. In all fairness, having spoken with Squid about this, she DID want this story to be longer but was afraid of boring readers or turning them off with such a high chapter count. I think this was a grave mistake that could have easily solved many of the stories time lapse and character development issues. The time gap between when Psii and Car's last meet as children to when they meet again as young adults focuses largely on Psii's life at the expense of everything else. We know virtually nothing of what was going on between the Dolorsosa, the Disciple, and Car during this time. This makes sense since we're largely seeing the story through Psii's perspective and the author DOES offer some exposition in the three chapters after the reunion but..I guess it feels like a cop out to me. This gap sets up tension in the Psii/Car relationship and Psii's insecurity about having left his matesprit behind. But this is focused on so little that the issue is resolved literally right after it's presented. While we're constantly given a sense of doubt from Psii and watch him deal with his insecurities, it's never enough for the reader to feel tense. In fact I'd argue this entire section of story is boring. The plot is moving forward but we're not really given any reason to care. It's not just the false stress in the Car/Psii relationship, either. The advancement of the rebellion and the highbloods' increasing awareness of it is no better. Scenes feel like throw-away plot devices. I give props that the birth of the shoosh-pap is highlighted here but that aside it's hard to recall anything noteworthy from this section of story.   
Reflecting back on it I suppose I can see why. The lack of detail about our main characters' lives during the time gap posed questions about the Disciple/Signless relationship. But, again, the explanations we got were only vague commentaries that in my mind posed more questions than they answered. We don't get the chance to witness more of the Disciple's feelings in this, how the Dolorsosa felt about this entire tragedy having grown attached to all her wards, and honestly make Car feel like a colossal jackass (but this in some ways is both understandable and endearing—more on this later). As soon as Psii comes back into the picture Car's ready to dismiss everything that happened during the time gap and it's not once called out by the narration. Just because the Disciple always knew of Car's feelings for Psii doesn't mean she didn't suffer at all during this period. The author is obviously aware of this in the few instances we get a glimpse into her emotions of the time (when she's showing the tome to Psii and when she's crying when they return from their first date). Not to mention Car's guilt is shallow and barely touched upon. He shrugs off all blame and responsibility under the excuse of "well she knew this would happen" and NO ONE says anything about it--not even the Dolorosa in all her infinite motherly wisdom.   
I understand that Car IS rather optimistic and selfish and this is true to how he likely would be in the situation but that the other characters don't bat an eye tells me the author had an agenda that was in conflict to what the characters were actually telling her to write. It didn't feel a natural progression at all. This was a wonderful opportunity for character development but it leaves entirely too much to the imagination. We're given hallow shells instead of real characters. As happy as I am that Dualscar was so fleshed out it feels like it took away all the author's energy or desire to develop anyone else. All the other characters are interesting and their development is nice but it's not enough. They serve their purpose and as far as the background characters go that's all they really needed to do. But that I feel the background characters had as much development as our true main characters spells our a glaring flaw in this story.  
To speak of the characters more specifically I do appreciate what we get to know about them. Could there be more? Absolutely. But what is there is still some great content to build upon. Continuing on what I've said of the Signless so far, it seems no one really “gets” him as a character. I'd argue the Signless is the second most developed character in the story but it's more based in reading between the lines than anything expressed outright. Something the author brings up several times (and that I also have in this review) is his childlike sense of wonder and how he looks at the world. Having been so far removed from it most of his life he's never fully understood suffering the way the lowbloods had to. Even as a young adult he's so optimistic and obsessed with his visions that he almost blocks out the reality happening in front of him. That's not to say he doesn't understand it, he just lacks the more hands-on experience with it that the other characters had. This makes him particularly good at envisioning this more perfect “past Alternia” that he wants to recreate. He's has to live in fear most of his life but he's never really been made to suffer. This unpretentious optimism makes him unable to see through to consequences. I'll talk more on this later but it especially shows in his interactions with Psii after Psii returns to him, during their first sexual encounter, in the attack of the subjugglators on the ghetto, in his reckless abandon of allowing highbloods into his sermons, etc. That last one is a little arguable because he does seem to see more of the Dolorosa's point when she's distressed the Disciple was talking to Darkleer but based on the rest of the story it seems he is rather encouraging of highbloods to attend.   
One criticism I have with how his character is presented is how little we know of his sermons. He's no where near as talkative as he's described as being. The interactions we see between him and our other protagonists is more human and relatable. I do like this as it takes him away from being the troll messiah and makes him more engagingly imperfect. We do get to see some of his ideals come through when he's talking to Psii about forgiving Dualscar but it also comes off as incredibly insensitive to what Psii went through. This isn't a bad thing, it just showcases his lack of real world experience. Even so I would have liked to know more. His sermons and dreams play such a big role in the story but we know nothing about them outside of inferred context.  
The Psiioniic is a bit blander. The most we see from his character is actually in his development from child to young adult through Dualscar. Dualscar serves as a wonderful plot device for advancing Psii's character and I've had amazing conversations with Squid about this and in particular Psii's evolution based solely on how he learned to interact with Dualscar. Sadly these conversations have given me more detail than the story itself did. I really hope to see supplementary stories to this so we can witness Psii more. I don't think his insipidity is entirely his own fault, it's just that he's rarely been given the chance in the story to show his true colors. He's hard to see develop on his own without anything to react with. What we do know of him is just how insecure he is at his core. Even before he was broken I interpreted him as always being afraid of what would happen next. He's much better at seeing potential consequences. He's insecure and rather influenced by how he thinks those around him perceive him. He's also much more emotionally aware and developed than Carmine. He has a lot of very deep wounds and almost seems unwilling to work through them. I'd argue this is because he's never been given the opportunity to and he's ashamed of things out of his control (his love of Carmine, his lisp, the things Dualscar did to him, etc.). Something else worth noting is his survival instinct. He is broken very easily. He accepts the tragedies that come into his life and rolls over without much of a fight. Even later in his development when he is able to say “no” to Dualscar and test those waters he picks and chooses his battles. Though, to be fair, I think anyone in that situation would quickly get tired of Dualscar's antics and have to learn to pick and choose. Beyond the interactions with Dualscar we don't really see him standing up to anything. It's easier for him to hide from a situation or shut down than to fight it. I'm really curious how much of this is nature vs nurture.  
The last character I care to talk about is the Disciple. I could say more about the Dolorosa, Darkleer, the Grand Highblood, and the Condesce but there's honestly not a lot to say. I wish there was more about the Disciple in this story. She really comes into her own in the later half of the middle of the story but..we still don't know much. We're given a few glimpses into who she is and they're all clever but not concrete enough. I wanted to know more about her feelings toward Carmine, about Psii coming back, about her love of love but also her love for Carmine and how she balances that out, her relationship with the Dolorosa, and especially her obsession with the Signless's sermons. She's got so much to work with and she's paid much more heed than a lot of other ancestor stories give to her but she's still put in the back seat to focus on the Signless/Psii relationship and that's a shame because she sounds really interesting. She lives up to her name and deserves more than this story offers.  
I wanted a separate section to discuss some of the more controversial scenes in the story. These may be triggering or contain triggering views and may tell you more about me than you care to know but it's important to explain my point of view and approach to these types of scenes to adequately explain why I feel how I feel about them. The first major scene is the sex scene between Carmine and Psii. There is a definite start and finish (not just a lead in) but it's kept remarkably vague. Personally, I hate this style of writing when it comes to sex because most fanfiction I'm drawn to has given me a perverse expectation of what I want to see in my stories. What I often fail to grasp in this is that when an author writes a sex scene like what I've come to expect they are revealing to you the reader a very intimate and private section of their mind. Despite my very open sexuality and opinions on porn and erotica, I virtually never express my thoughts on specific porn tastes or specific desires. I enjoy writing sex and have since I was way too young to be writing it, but even I find it difficult to fully express my thoughts and ideas on paper. Asking any author to do so with such vivid clarity is asking them to open up without anonymity to an anonymous reader. Authors are revealing parts of themselves they may not even admit to their own romantic or sexual partners. We can't take this trust for granted and so I don't want to be too harsh about the lack of detail in this scene or some logistics I take issue with. I think think author has a lot of potential to write amazing and unique sex if she just learns to open up to those fantasies (think the Music of the Night from the Phantom of the Opera). She has asked me in the past to go more in depth about my thoughts so I may as well do it here but I'll block off the section to anyone not interested.  
\--  
The set up to the scene is a bit awkward. We're made to question Carmine's comfort with sex (which gets explained in the next chapter) but this is never touched on in the appropriate time by Psii despite Psii's requirement to outright confess to the reader that he's never had sex with Dualscar (a point I've argued with the author on before). As far as the story is concerned, it's believable. Psii is constantly comparing Carmine's kiss to that of Dualscar's which was a nice touch and helps solidify Psii's uncertainty in the situation and reminds the reader of the abuse he endured. Interestingly enough in the next chapter Psii's reluctance to fuck Dualscar is approached when Psii outright says he honestly considered it. Not because of the pressure Dualscar put on him but because “he was there”. This alludes to Stockholm almost but is never really talked about.   
I also really liked the moment of reveal when Psii looses his shirt and Carmine sees a more physical manifestation of Psii's life over the past ten years. But, yet again, he doesn't seem to feel anything toward Psii's obvious pain and struggle. He dismisses it and STILL coerces Psii into sex. Psii's reluctance and so-far intimate and social experience with another troll shows here which makes me dislike this scene more. Not because of this moment, this moment is brilliant, but Carmine still pushes through it and Psii accepts it. To me this borderline rape in itself. On one hand you can see this as a moment of healing, a reprieve from that life he lived before and the turning point of what it could be but somehow I find Psii may be a tad more triggered by this entire situation than we're led to believe. I think Carmine in this moment has an agenda he intends to reach. He's shown in other parts of the story this kind of selfish, go-getting attitude too. He makes a plan and he goes after it. There's no real understanding of Psii's suffering which is a brilliant play on his continued childish optimism and luck in life (all things considered which makes the ending of the entire story that much more tragic) but it's also never addressed. It's kept in this very positive light and the reprecuations really not touched on, especially here. Now, I admit, I'm probably speaking a little too much from my own personal experience in a similar situation, so you'll have to take my opinion with a grain of salt. Psii just seems too relaxed and okay with this.   
We only have a brief moment of him questioning anything. It's so minuscule and glossed over where as it could have been expanded on in this scene. I would argue maybe that's not what the author was going for but she repeatedly brings up Psii's mixed emotions including a simultaneous fear and excite in the situation. Now, because he's allegedly a virgin it makes sense but given the other context we have in both the scene and what we know of Psii's life, I can't just look over it.   
The window exploding was also silly. A cute tie-in to the past but it distracts from the story. The author does this a lot throughout the story and I don't find it as charming as I'm sure it was intended. The way it's written in the narration and dialogue itself feels unnatural. Like it's a moment the "laugh" cue flashes above a studio audience and it forces the tv viewer to want to join in on an insincere emotion.   
I also take issue with the, what I assume to be, orgasm at the same time. I hate when stories do this. It's not that these things don't happen, it's just..it feels unrealistic. It also ignores the use of buckets and where they may fit into troll sex. There are many explanations that could be why they didn't use one but I feel the author needed to at least give a nod to the reason. While I want my sex scenes to be an escape from reality and an exploration of a fantasy, I also find a sense of realism really heightens the experience. This entire scene and particular this end to it made me feel like the author wanted to get through the scene as quickly as possible. It added a layer of sap that was entirely unnecessary. Considering the ending, it is forgivable to some extent.   
Deviating from the canon of the story I have my own theory about why this scene is so "perfect" and it ties in to why I do not think Psii was a virgin in this scene either. Mind you, this is NOT the author's opinion, this is my own. But my own take on the matter is a more tragic look into how Psii has wanted to experience or shut away the chunk of his life we didn't experience with him. I think to a degree Psii is lying to himself about the trauma of his life. While he easily COULD and DID overpower Dualscar when it was needed, this scene with Carmine also shows us visible examples of the abuse that he didn't stop. Why didn't he? When does he draw the line of it being easier to endure than to fight? When Carmine sees his scars or brings them up Psii goes into total shut down mode. It makes me things there are circumstances he may not have been able to say no to, not just that he decided it wasn't worth the effort. Psii's character almost seems confused in parts. Not that a victim should be one-note, just that I find this all a little too inconsistent.  
The next chapter also poses an issue for me because it's the moment Car confesses to having sex with the Disciple. Psii doesn't seem to care. I find this incredibly unlikely. He's been bothered and questioning the Signless/Disciple relationship during the time he was gone but the idea that Car gave his virginity to her while Psii was gone doesn't stir up any sort of emotion with Psii? In fact we're meant to laugh when Psii points out Car sure did seem to know what he was doing. Given his emotional state in all this, it wouldn't play out like that. Again, I AM putting more of my personal experiences into this, but I don't find them an unreasonable standard here. This scene is played out too idealistically.  
–  
The next controversial scene is not only my favorite scene and chapter of the story but also the reason I read Primary Colors: Chapter 25 Failure. My first reaction when I encountered this story well over a year ago before I got to know the author was "oh god not this shit". I didn't even open it up in a separate tab like I usually would to mark it for later reading if I couldn't find something better. The description engaged me but the tags, the lack of an E rating, the ongoing status, and the main listed ship did nothing for me and deterred me from reading. Mind you I've gotten past most of those but I think those tags really may be the deterrent for a lot of people. The gemini/cancer ship in ANY incarnation throughout Homestuck isn't my cup of tea. I wouldn't say I despise it on the same level as EriSol (I want to gouge out my ear drums whenever someone lists it as an OTP--let's make people distrust my opinion before I even get to it! Well done, Catty) but fairly close. I encountered Primary Colors a few times while it was being written but never sat down to read beyond the first chapter. I was so convinced of what the story would be like based on the tags and the first chapter that I dismissed the rest of its potential. A bit of time later I couldn't sleep and was scrolling my Tumblr dash when someone I followed wrote that this chapter just updated in Primary Colors and holy shit it was amazing but tragic and they just didn't know what to do with themselves it was so triggering but not in the intentionally dickish way. I laughed, I thought there is no way this is the same story. So I followed the link and saw sure enough it was. What could potentially be so bad in this sap fest to get someone so torn up? Well it was enough for me to want to read and I read that chapter before I read the rest of the story. It was the deciding factor in reading the rest of it. I thought if she can write like this, I clearly wrote this off too soon. It would have been interesting to experience this chapter in the linear timeline but I'm not sure I would have ever read it had I not done it this way.   
The scene is difficult to talk about because I know how difficult it was for the author to write. She has very clear views of the use of rape in a story and it had to serve a damn good purpose if she's to give it any attention. I will reluctantly admit my standards are not as high. I love rape stories, but not necessarily fetishized rape. Sexual assault either needs to serve a major purpose in the story (it shouldn't be thrown around willy-nilly) or if it's the entire story it needs to be taken seriously and show off the true trauma and horror it creates. Just like I don't like my gore half-assed, I don't like my sexual assault anything but grisly, disgusting, and triggering. I think rape can be a difficult thing to write because of the social implications. I've seen rape used in many stories as a throw-away or fetishized, which is unfortunate. Rape can be used as a powerful plot device or a fantastic and tragic insight into a character's head. The author approaches this scene with class. We're not forced to endure the detail of it but rather something much harder to stomach. Imagine the Beautiful World song being played over a depiction of war. As over-done as that may be it's still powerful. The author takes away from the horror we know is going on the entire time by giving us fond memories from the past. It doesn't erase what's happening and in fact makes you that much more aware of what's going on and how horrible and tragic the entire situation is. This is the point I was waiting for this entire story. Quoting the author it serves as “the complete obliteration of hope, the death of dreams.”   
Everything up until this point has been largely up-beat and forward progressing. If you were aware of the ancestor arc before this point you knew vaguely what was coming but it doesn't make the sudden shift in mood or the controversial scene any less gripping. The rape of the Dolorosa serves three key purposes. 1. It demonstrates the true motherly conviction and strength of the Dolorosa. 2. It solidifies our hatred, anger, disgust, and frustration with Dualscar. 3. Most importantly, it breaks Carmine. He can no longer live in this delusion. He has to accept a complete loss of everything he stood for, finally being forced to suffer. He has to come to terms with his concept of forgiveness like he tried to force upon Psii. This scene always make me cry, it's just set up so beautifully. You can know it's coming every time but it's structured to hit you where it hurts the most and kick you while you're down. It sets up the Signless' final Sermon and transition to the Sufferer and is wonderful to reflect back on when you get to that point.  
Now, there's more to this chapter than the rape, there's a lot of great things I'd like to point out. The appearance of the Handmaid, seeing the Condesce as more of a ruler, the interactions between the Condesce and the Grand Highblood (which also makes you want to learn more about the political structure as I may have already mentioned or will later), the slowly building anger throughout the torture of the Signless..all brilliant things that I would love to see more of but, the a fore mentioned scene still takes the cake and solidifies this entire segment. I'll save the rest of my thoughts for the end, as I'd like to expand a bit more on the entire ending.  
Moving along to the subject of time gaps (sorry this is so out of place—I wrote this all out of order) I also want to address the four year time gap in the middle of the story (four years being referenced by Darkleer to when he last spoke with the Disciple). It bothered me a lot more in my first three read-throughs then it did on my most recent one. Expanding on the story of our protagonists over those four years would have been rather boring and done nothing for the story, in all honesty. But I find it incredibly unlikely that nothing happened on the part of the highbloods in all that time. We know there's a lot of frustrations and unrest from the Grand Highblood over these four years out of his inability to catch the Signless. However, I find it unlikely that they never even come close in all that time.   
Our protagonists are largely traveling on foot and not doing much to hide their presence in the towns they visit. His sermons function purely by word of mouth (Darkleer discusses this) and he attracts large crowds of attendance with appearances being made by even sea trolls. But no one of any importance aside from Darkleer caught any wind of this at all? I still raise an eyebrow at that. We're given a good reason to why Darkleer never acted or shared his information about these with any of his higher ups but I find it incredibly unlikely he's the only one that noticed any of this. Our protagonists are clumsy at best and I've never been able to find a good reason why they weren't discovered sooner aside from plot convenience. What was Dualscar up to during this entire time? We're made to believe later he's been actively looking but he must have his head really far up his ass (along with everyone else) if they are lagging that far behind in this race (Darkleer even pokes fun at Dualscar in their meeting at the abandoned bar over this--and this remains one of my favorite scenes in the story). I would have found this section of story much more interesting if we saw more the inner workings of the highbloods and the politics involved . It also may have shred light on the whys.  
A huge credit I can give to the author is how she writes. I find myself falling more in love with how an author tells a story than the story itself. Watching me read a fanfic for the first time is quite an interesting ordeal. I react very visually and verbally to what's going on and will talk to myself for a good half hour just over how they structured a paragraph or a word they used or how they set up in-character dialogue. I like when there's more narration than dialogue guiding a story and I will drool over and appreciate every letter on the page. Squid has a good grasp on balance. I find some other authors that are more well known and praised for their work lack this basic skill. Often times an author can be so caught up in how they write that they forget about the balance needed to tell the story. I have no issue calling out RoachPatrol on this. I've been meaning to get to reviewing their work for ages and I'm going to address this there. They're very heavily praised and well known and they do genuinely deserve that, but something I've always taken issue with in their work is I can read a single paragraph over and over and over and still not have a clue what I was supposed to be getting from it. It's beautiful to read but confusing. It sounds like it should be interesting and I should be in awe of it, and I am, but I still can't tell you what was actually implied in that writing. Squid is an author that is very down to earth in how she tells her stories. They aren't difficult to read, and they are fairly to the point without being "this happened, then this happened, then this happened." She has a natural flow to her writing that stays engaging and interesting and is easy to comprehend.   
Something worth noting on a second or third or fourth of fifth read through is how the narration changes depending on who is supposed to be focus in any one section. It's subtle but it guides the reader into a certain mindset that you may not consciously realize and makes you more receptive to the dialogue and tone of the scene. It shows how an author doesn't have to spell out literal thoughts of any one character and distract from the scene. Instead we're allowed to change our minds and acclimate without fully realizing it. It's a nice touch.  
I also appreciate her dialogue. Sometimes it's a bit off-putting that our Jesus allegory swears and speaks so naturally but it's actually quite clever. Our characters in Homestuck, in particular trolls, DO talk like this. You could argue a little bit with it since Mindfang doesn't talk like this but I find it a nice touch. Most of the characters have their own way of speaking but I will say it doesn't go far enough. I dislike when characters become caricatures in their dialogue and it's a fine line to walk, but I also find the speech patterns and ways of thinking aren't diverse enough in the dialogue. Without the narration context a lot of speech could easily be coming from anyone in the story. And I'm not talking about a lack of accents or typing quirks (again, I don't want caricatures of my characters), but I feel some of the dialogue is a little lifeless. Still great, but could be kicked up a notch (BAM!).  
And now for something completely different. I wanted to reserve my thoughts on the ending for the end of the review because I feel it's a nice note to end on. Every time I read this story I hate or love the last two chapters. LR and I disagree on the 27th chapter. The 27th chapter is the death of the Sufferer. It is completely understated. His death isn't drawn out, his suffering isn't detailed, he gives no real final sermon..it just happens and then is done and he's dead. I think it's brilliant. It shows off just how meaningless his death was to the highbloods and reminds us he was indeed mortal and how quickly life can be taken away. This is the scene we've been waiting for all story and with the immense tragic build up in the chapter before it you'd almost expect this to be the big climactic bang of the story and it isn't. That's why it's so beautiful. I reminds me of how some execution scenes are filmed where we have the steady drum leading up to the execution but then the camera pans back and there's complete silence as the death occurs. It allows the full tragedy to sink into your system and takes your heart out of your bare chest and throws it on the ground and stomps on it until you die (and yes that is a Weird Al reference). It's fantastic and I cannot praise it enough. This chapter alone is the magnum opus of Squid's work to date. It has to be considered in conjunction to the chapter before it but it's a tragic, lifeless whimper as life is extinguished. A brief fluke just like his blood color. It's nothing that I expected and that's why it was so perfect.   
The final two chapters, as I said before, I love or hate. There's no middle ground. On one hand we need the conclusion to the Psiionii'c arc. As much as I'd love for the story to end on the high note of the Sufferer's death, we still have a character alive that we don't know what happens to (except for the fact we do but..you know what I mean). This chapter is all the more tragic because we're given no time to mourn. We're trust into this just like Psii was and given no opportunity to rest. It's best appreciated reading these final chapters all at once because of this. We get some fantastic insight into how a psiioniic is grafted into the ship and allowed to imagine the years of prolonged suffering the Condesce will put him through. Part of me wishes it would have ended at that point leaving the infinite suffering to sink in but it wouldn't be much of a conclusion. So while I don't really appreciate the rest of this as much as I could, it's more because I like things ending on a sour note. Death is too easy. But, I think Squid made the right choice in not ending the story on that. We do get to witness the Psiioniic's death. It could easily have ended there too and I'd be just as content. Sadly I'm not one to get my way and my behated ashenmate just had to go and write this final chapter.   
The ending thus far makes me completely forgive anything I disliked from the first ¾ of the story. It's so well crafted and so tragic that we almost need that stark contrast of the sappy beginning to offset and set up this ending. But this final chapter simultaneously serves an important and powerful purpose while making me want to chuck my computer out the window because I can't hate this chapter as much as I want to. While I do hate the chapter, don't get me wrong, it's a brilliant end to the story that doesn't necessarily take away from the tragedy. The end chapter is a dream bubble. I can't fathom quite how I feel about it. I don't want to leave this vague but it's really something you have to read for yourself to decide what to think. I think it's actually incredibly clever. We don't know the life span of a dream bubble, we don't even know that these characters are real and not just in Psii's memory and created by the dream bubble..it's mentioned the bubbles intersected but that doesn't mean you can stay in someone else's bubble and I love that this ending is kept open-ended and left to personal interpretation on that. It reminds me a lot of the ending to Jacob's Ladder but in reverse. I can't tell you what to think about it and I wouldn't try. You should read it for yourself and decide if you think it's an adequate conclusion.  
To this day I stand by my personal interpretation of canon being canon. I don't read further than a friendship if not a moirallegiance between the Psiioniic and the Signless. However, despite that, this story offers a fantastic interpretation of how this could go about while keeping true to canon. While it didn't change my main line of thinking it was a refreshing take on the ancestor arc that in no way made this relationship the only focal point of the story. So often fanfiction is written to serve the ship, not using the ship to serve the fanfic. Primary Colors shows how you can tell a wonderful and conclusive story based in canon without relying on sex or romance to pad your entire story.   
There's a lot I didn't get the opportunity to mention but without stating every single little things I noticed, this is the best I can manage. Believe me, the story has some wonderful allusions to canon or unstated future events. I encourage you to read this story for yourself and experience them on your own. While I rarely find myself noticing new things in each of my reads, I do find it fascinating how one story can change my opinion so much every time I read it. It's fun to focus on different things each time and think more critically about the events. Read it for yourself and make your judgments, I doubt you'll be disappointed.


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